ResultsThe strongest cue related to gender perception was F0, followed by FF and SL. Aperiodicity did not systematically influence gender perception. Morphing F0 and FF in conjunction produced convincing changes in perceived gender—changes that were equivalent to those for Full morphs interpolating all parameters. Despite the importance of F0, morphing FF and SL in combination produced effective changes in voice gender perception.

ConclusionsThe most important single parameters for gender perception are, in order, F0, FF, and SL. At the same time, F0 and vocal tract resonances have a comparable impact on voice gender perception.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Grant Schw 511/10-1 (“Voice Perception”), awarded to the second author in the context of the DFG Research Unit Person Perception (Grant FOR1097).

We gratefully acknowledge the advice given by Hideki Kawahara in describing in detail the TANDEM-STRAIGHT procedure. We also thank Achim Hötzel for assistance in stimuli preparation, acoustic measurement, and data acquisition, and Harms Achtergarde and Romi Zäske for helpful comments on this article.

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